NFLPA Says Language in 160 Rookie Contracts Violates CBA

The National Football League Players Association is considering a plan to file grievances for around 160 rookie contracts involving at least 25 NFL teams because it believes the language in those deals violates the league's current collective bargaining agreement.

On Wednesday, Dan Graziano of ESPN.com passed along comments from NFLPA spokesman George Atallah about the union's concerns.

"The union has undergone a comprehensive review of rookie contracts and language in those contracts for this year," Atallah said. "The CBA explicitly prohibits players from some of the language that we have seen the clubs attempt to impose in these deals. We are considering all of our options to protect the players and enforce the CBA."

While the Players Association didn't provide any specific examples or a list of rookies involved, it explained some prohibited language to Graziano. Lead issues include required extra offseason physicals, "automatic repayment" clauses and mandatory permission for taking part in the "legal tampering" free-agent period.

The union has been in contact with the NFL management council to discuss the situation before moving forward with the possible grievances, according to the ESPN.com report.

In 2014, Andrew Brandt of The MMQB noted incoming rookies were stripped of most negotiation leverage in the CBA to the point where they questioned "why they need to have an agent to handle rookie contracts" since most of the details were already set in stone.

A union official told Brandt at the time a "highly trained monkey could negotiate these numbers." Now it appears the NFLPA believes teams are taking further advantage of the first-year players' lack of legitimate power in their first contract negotiation.

Graziano pointed out the union could fight to have the offending deals voided if discussions with the NFL management council don't yield changes to the contract language.